The end of
law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom. For in
all the states of created beings capable of laws, where there is no law, there
is no freedom.

John Locke
(1632–1704)

No law can
possibly meet the convenience of every one: we must be satisfied if it be
beneficial on the whole and to the majority.

Titus Livius
(Livy) (59 B.C.–A.D. 17), Roman
historian

Senators,

Regarding Senator Elliott's SB799, I know you will be told that the
compassionate thing to do is to pass this bill. However, we have laws
precisely to protect against “compassion” that occurs naturally, and which
can eventually create injustice and chaos. We are better protected by laws
that at times may seem cruel than by our feelings. For example, it is
very simple to feel sorry for someone who has broken the law and now is
subject to what seems harsh punishment. But to ignore that broken law leads
invariably to even more crime and more hardships to others, often the
innocent.

Mandating that children of illegal aliens who came here as children must pay
out-of-state tuition may seem cruel, but it is the price that they and their
parents pay for the crime of coming to this country illegally. Some
children suffer when their parents are imprisoned for committing crimes. We
have compassion for those children, but we don’t let the parent out of
prison. Both child and parent have to suffer for what the parent did. To let
the parent out of prison would create chaos; it would precipitate an eventual
breakdown of the law that would endanger other innocents.

Do
laws mean anything anymore? To you? To anyone? We have a Secretary of the
Treasury and head of the IRS who is an admitted tax cheat. Because of that I
wonder how many people this year will refuse to file their taxes. Ignoring
laws, or interpreting them any way one wants will have serious consequences,
the worst of which would be, of course, anarchy. I believe that we already
have an electorate that is becoming more and more cynical, and that is very
dangerous for all of us.

Interestingly,
when Sen. Elliott claims that 10 other states have ignored the federal law and
gotten away with it (a paraphrase of her comment), it sounds suspiciously like
the excuses my teenage granddaughter uses when she really wants something that
she knows her parents won't approve of and which may not be good for her.

Finally, if
you pass this bill, and Jim Purcell, director of the Department of Higher
Education, is correct about Arkansas losing its ability to charge out-of-state
tuition, how do you plan to replace that money? Tax us even more? Raid the
treasury? It will be interesting to see how quickly an out-of-state student
files suit if this bill is passed.

I implore you
to uphold our laws and not pass this bill.

Iris Stevens

Jonesboro, AR

Law and order
exist for the purpose of establishing justice, and ... when they fail to do
this purpose they become dangerously structured dams that block the flow of
social progress. Martin
Luther King, Jr.
(1929–1968)